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Original poster

Do you ‘Accept Cookies’ or ‘ Reject Cookies’ ?

31 replies

Riverlee · 16/09/2023 22:37

Sorry, not talking about biscuits, but websites. I always accept them, but a friend rejects them. What do people do, and what’s the benefit, if any, of accepting them, or why do people reject them?

OP posts:
OddlyFramed · 16/09/2023 22:39

Reject and don’t use websites that don’t allow me to easily Turn them down and wants me to click each one taking ages

SweetBirdsong · 16/09/2023 22:40

I ALWAYS reject!

Drews · 16/09/2023 22:40

Reject

DappledThings · 16/09/2023 22:41

Accept. I like the ones that sometimes come up that rather than accept or decline mark them as something like "no way!" and "whatever" with the latter being very much how I feel

lljkk · 16/09/2023 22:41

I 80% reject. Because I'm cantankerous.
I accept if I like the website, it has info I appreciate. Then they can sell my cookies.

It's all marketing shite and user is the product, isn't it. The marketing to me was 90% terrible and inappropriate before I started rejecting.

cassiatwenty · 16/09/2023 22:41

Reject

TomatoSoupIsLikeVampiresBlood · 16/09/2023 22:42

OddlyFramed · 16/09/2023 22:39

Reject and don’t use websites that don’t allow me to easily Turn them down and wants me to click each one taking ages

This. If I can’t reject them, or I have click 30 odd to turn them off individually, I don’t use that company or site.

RampantIvy · 16/09/2023 22:44

Reject. I get irritated by the cookie request on every website I look at.

SM4713 · 16/09/2023 22:44

I go out of my way to reject them including the 'legitimate interest' ones.

TBH- I don't fully understand what they mean? I'm assuming they are somehow tracking my viewing, so reject everything I can.

Islandsadness · 16/09/2023 22:50

Accept. It's easier

yagni · 16/09/2023 22:56

You can reject them if you like, but a lot of websites won't work properly without them. They're not harvested your data, they're a form of local data persistence so that your browser remembers things about the website.

I'm a software engineer and I build web apps for a living. I always accept them.

CyberCritical · 16/09/2023 23:04

I accept essential cookies and reject the optional/tracking ones.

Essential cookies are to enable functionality on the website.

BertieBotts · 16/09/2023 23:08

A cookie is just a piece of info that is stored to tell the website that you're the same person coming back and not a new visitor.

Without cookies you can't stay logged in to a website like Mumsnet or save any settings, for example if you go to a weather website and change it from Fahrenheit to Celsius, that's saved in a cookie so that you don't have to change that setting every time you come back. On a video site it might save info about what you've already watched so it doesn't show you the same things over and over again.

They are also used for marketing, and some sites might use cookies to check things like whether you're logged into Facebook at the same time and therefore send info back there for ad personalisation/data tracking purposes. That's the kind of thing that the warning was brought in for. But that wasn't their original intended purpose, and there are useful reasons to want cookies.

I use a browser extension that automatically accepts them because I don't care enough either way. But when a warning gets past the extension I tend to reject or if there's an easy option, accept only essential. That's my preference (essential is stuff like settings and login info). To be perfectly honest though I (like most people I expect) rarely read what it's actually asking me and usually click whatever looks like it will make the message go away fastest. The message is more annoying to me than the collection of cookies.

If you don't want cookies to be stored at all then you should always browse in incognito mode. That prevents them being stored.

TomatoSoupIsLikeVampiresBlood · 16/09/2023 23:09

@yagni why, when I reject as many as possible, do I receive emails from American companies when I’ve accidentally proceeded onto a site if they aren’t harvesting my data? I’m not very technical so don’t know how to stop this except reject all or leave the site.

Trainstrike · 16/09/2023 23:12

To some extent it's a bit pointless whether you accept or reject. By going on to a website already and allowing the question to be asked, you will already be allowing some level of access. I've seen it likened to someone throwing a brick through your window and then asking if you want the brick or not.

MaybeanothertimeNotReally · 16/09/2023 23:28

I always reject cookies and regularly clear my browsing history.

MidnightOnceMore · 16/09/2023 23:32

I mostly reject.

therealcookiemonster · 16/09/2023 23:45

COOKIES?!!!

yagni · 17/09/2023 06:15

@TomatoSoupIsLikeVampiresBlood I really have no idea. If you're getting unsolicited emails (and most of us do, just use an email service with a good spam filter - gmail is decent) they will have acquired your email address from somewhere. Probably it was on a list that has been sold to them. A cookie isn't going to store your email address unless you enter it on the website. If you submit details on a website they don't need cookies in order to store them. The two things aren't related.

I can track what you are doing on a website I build without ever using a cookie. I can write that into the code in lots of ways. I can't get your personal data unless you give it to me though, e.g. you fill out a form and press submit. In a lot of the world, including the UK, there are pretty strict laws about what I can do with that data.

I would suggest getting an email service with a decent spam filter, be careful of where you submit personal data, use single sign on wherever possible (it doesn't matter which one - google, Facebook etc - they already have your data and they have much better security than smaller companies), and stay off social media as far as possible. It's shit for lots of reasons.

MaidOfSteel · 17/09/2023 06:52

I reject the lot, of stop using a website if it makes it hard for me to do so.

I wish there was a way for us to do it just once, when we set a new phone up, and this decision to be used for every website we visit.

Devilsmommy · 17/09/2023 07:20

@yagni so is it better to sign in with Google rather than email address and password for specific sites? I always reject cookies but am I screwing that up by not just doing the single sign in? Sorry its just you sound like you know what you're talking about and I'm useless 😆

Stripeypyjamas · 17/09/2023 07:25

BertieBotts · 16/09/2023 23:08

A cookie is just a piece of info that is stored to tell the website that you're the same person coming back and not a new visitor.

Without cookies you can't stay logged in to a website like Mumsnet or save any settings, for example if you go to a weather website and change it from Fahrenheit to Celsius, that's saved in a cookie so that you don't have to change that setting every time you come back. On a video site it might save info about what you've already watched so it doesn't show you the same things over and over again.

They are also used for marketing, and some sites might use cookies to check things like whether you're logged into Facebook at the same time and therefore send info back there for ad personalisation/data tracking purposes. That's the kind of thing that the warning was brought in for. But that wasn't their original intended purpose, and there are useful reasons to want cookies.

I use a browser extension that automatically accepts them because I don't care enough either way. But when a warning gets past the extension I tend to reject or if there's an easy option, accept only essential. That's my preference (essential is stuff like settings and login info). To be perfectly honest though I (like most people I expect) rarely read what it's actually asking me and usually click whatever looks like it will make the message go away fastest. The message is more annoying to me than the collection of cookies.

If you don't want cookies to be stored at all then you should always browse in incognito mode. That prevents them being stored.

What is the browser extension? Having the cookies message on every website infuriates me!

Boshi · 17/09/2023 07:30

I reject if I’m not going to be using the website again, I accept for sites where I need to be logged in etc

it is such a pain in the butt if you are researching and opening lots of pages so I will just accept if I want them out of the way quickly

ChickaBlock · 17/09/2023 08:58

Depends - is definitely accept if they're the large chocolate chip ones! May reject the smaller/blander ones

yagni · 17/09/2023 09:28

Generally yes @Devilsmommy. Security is expensive and small companies often can't afford to do it as well as they would like. They also don't always have the resources to keep it up to date.

If you're someone with nefarious intent, it's going to be a hell of a lot easier to hack a small database with low security than it is to hack e.g. Amazon or google. Which isn't to say people don't try for the kudos or because those companies are generally hated or whatever, but if you're just looking to make a fast buck by stealing data and selling it on, you're going to pick the easy targets.

Plus, google etc probably already have your data (presuming you have existing accounts) so it makes sense to use them for other stuff so you're reducing the places where you are sharing information.

Pretty much everywhere I have worked enforces single sign on for employees for security reasons.

Also, don't reuse passwords. Use a password manager!